Afghanistan's first democratic election has been thrown into confusion after it was announced that most presidential candidates were boycotting it.

The move follows claims of widespread voting irregularities.

The boycott was agreed by 15 candidates opposed to the favourite, the interim President Hamid Karzai, reports say.

A spokesman for the joint UN-Afghan electoral commission said the vote would continue as it had been generally "safe and orderly".

BBC News Online's Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says it will be a major setback for poll organisers if the credibility of the election is undermined.

The vote has been widely seen as a chance for Mr Karzai to extend his authority beyond the capital, Kabul.
He has led the country since the fall of the hard-line Islamic Taleban nearly three years ago.

Despite the wrangling among the candidates, BBC correspondents around Afghanistan have reported great levels of enthusiasm among ordinary people for the democratic process.

'Call it off'

The boycott has for now overshadowed fears that Taleban militants might disrupt the vote.

"Today's election is not a legitimate election," presidential candidate Abdul Satar Sirat said after hosting a meeting in which it is reported that 15 candidates signed up to the boycott.

I don't trust these elections - I voted an hour ago but, as you can see, there is no trace of the ink on my fingers

It is not clear how the election organisers will respond to the boycott. Earlier they had insisted that voting would continue.

Farook Wardak, head of the Joint Election Management Board, said marker pens were being used in some cases instead of the indelible ink, while in other cases, the correct ink was being applied to the wrong part of the finger.

President Karzai voted early in Kabul, saying it was a great day for the Afghan people.

He is widely tipped to win, although Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum and Tajik former education minister Yunus Qanuni have fought high-profile campaigns.

Correspondents say much will depend on how the country's various power brokers react to the result and how far the victor is prepared to challenge the political status quo in a country sometimes described as a series of mini-fiefdoms.

Security has been the leading concern in the run-up to the election, with up to 100,000 Afghan and international security personnel on high alert.

The first vote was cast by an Afghan refugee in neighbouring Pakistan, where voting opened slightly earlier.

Hamid Karzai cast his vote early

"I am very happy," said 19-year-old Moqadasa Sidiqi, after she voted in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Voting was scheduled to finish at 1600 local time (1130GMT), but was extended in some areas as many people still wished to vote.

Ballot boxes will then be sealed and transported to eight regional counting centres.

Initial results are expected in the coming days but it may take a couple of weeks for all the votes to be counted.